pell-mell

Related to pell-mell: predominantly, coyly, suspiciously

pell-mell

1. adverb In a frantic, confused, and disorderly manner; quickly and out of control. As the final bell of the semester rang, students ran pell-mell out the doors and into their summer of freedom.
2. adjective Frantic, disorderly, and out of control. The pell-mell traffic of India can be shocking to tourists who are used to more orderly streets.
3. noun Frantic and tumultuous disorder. The suspect managed to slip away among the horrible pell-mell that ensued.
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.
See also:
  • pell
  • get (one's) tail (somewhere)
  • get one’s tail somewhere fast!
  • get one’s tail somewhere immediately!
  • get one’s tail somewhere now!
  • crowd into (something or some place)
  • catty
  • catty-corner
  • second hand
  • second, third, etc. hand
References in periodicals archive
So, to return, helter-skelter and pell-mell, to tittle-tattle ...
Syfy's "The Magicians," an adaptation of Lev Grossman's trilogy of acclaimed fantasy novels about isolated and intellectually gifted adolescents trying to figure out how to connect with one another, and see the wonder, danger and possibility beyond their individual concerns, rushes pell-mell into the books' plots, and moves around a few of their most prominent elements, rearranging the story's foundations.
The Great North Run route would probably have to head pell-mell down Dean Street to the Swing Bridge, giving the runners a horrid climb up Bottle Bank.
What hasn't, of course, is the pell-mell conversion of the old houses into hotels.
Potentially no less telling is the suicide bomber, who strolls into a crowd and detonates his or her vest of explosives, or drives a vehicle pell-mell into a target.
The cascade of bad news in the Chinese construction and commodities sectors has been chronicled by a recent Wall Street Journal series on "China's Rising Risks," which explained how pell-mell borrowing by private Chinese companies -- corporate debt issues nearly doubled from 2011 to 2013 -- hit a wall this year.
People ran pell-mell after the blast." Similarly, another explosion took place at around 6:45am close to the polling station in the Abdul Wakil Shaheed area on the outskirts of Qarabagh district of Kabul province.
That's why Republicans have a stronger record than many might suspect, especially given their pell-mell retreat last week on the government shutdown and debt ceiling.
It is the pell-mell, breathless action that the fans want to see and that is delivered in high-octane style.
Master Medic is owned by the Pell-Mell Partners and one of them, Jim Chromiak, had news of another of their favourites, the 1991 Queen Mother Champion Chase winner Katabatic.
'By now our gardens are usually running away from us, careering pell-mell into summer, full steam ahead.
He is no opera singer, but Gaze's thespian skills are considerable and, above all, he really "gets" the Major-General--to the very roots of the character's inveterate pomposity Without drawing attention to it, his impeccable diction rendered the tumbling, pell-mell syllables of "I Am the Very Model of a Modern Major-General" perfectly comprehensible.
At first Zach is striding pell-mell across unforgiving concrete, straying close enough to the edge to be cause for concern, until I instruct him that the rest of the play must be conducted while he's stationary.
This is a micro-study of the Portuguese community (particularly focusing on the mixed-race Creole population neglected in many imperial histories) in the river state of Ayutthaya, Siam, during a period commonly seen as one of pell-mell imperial retreat (1640-1720).
"I think the future is always stranger and more surprising than people think," he says "We are headed pell-mell toward more and more virtual connections.